Supreme Court reserves order in Lafarge case, India

The Supreme Court has reserved its order over the contentious issue of resumption of mining operations by Lafarge in Meghalaya to supply the limestone to its cement plant in Bangladesh.

A special forest bench headed by the Chief Justice S H Kapadia concluded the marathon hearing over the batch of petitions filed by local residents, company and other parties.

The bench also asked the Center and Lafarge to file their written submissions before it by Friday.

On 5 February 2010, the apex court had stopped Lafarge from carrying out limestone mining in Meghalaya for its cement plant, saying that mining in the environmentally sensitive zone could not be allowed.

During the proceedings, Lafarge faced some tough question after its counsel Soli Sorabjee again reiterated that the company was not aware of fact that project site was actually a forest area.

He further submitted that even the Ministry of Forest and Environment (MoEF) was not aware of existence of dense forest area.
Published under Cement News